D&D General Does Dungeons & Dragon ever make you feel overwhelmed? (Letter about 1E that could be about any edition)

[TheLibrarian]

I definitely feel the pain and have through every edition.

Haha. I think to some extent it gets worse as you get older because as you add in additional responsibilities of work, kids, aging parents, etc. you have less time for "fun stuff." Not to mention there is just a TON of content being produced.

All that said, I'm a librarian and one of the things I help clients do is manage information overload. In essence it comes down to choosing what you're going to pay attention to and ignoring the rest. Try not to boil the ocean. Limit your focus to a couple of things you're really passionate about. Really like Ravenloft? Spend your time there. Really like Pathfinder, focus on that. Don't try to do D&D and Pathfinder and Vampire and etc. etc. If there is still a lot within that, try picking one or two publishers/content creators that you really like.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

This contributes to GM burnout. Some GMs limit incoming material and avoid settings with a metaplot for just this reason.

 

[niklinna]

And here I sit, in my corner, wondering why you didn't include the answer in your scan, and where the city of "Sam Jose" might be....

 

[pukunui]

I can relate. I know that past editions have had way more content and products than 5e has had so far, but I was really enjoying the simplicity of 5e back at the start and started to feel a bit overwhelmed by it around when Volo's came out. I've purchased every single 5e book that's come out so far, but I haven't read them all.

It's hard to keep up with all the races, subclasses, spells, magic items and so on that players want to make use of now.

 

[el-remmen]

And here I sit, in my corner, wondering why you didn't include the answer in your scan, and where the city of "Sam Jose" might be....

I am out of town right now, but if I remember when I get back home I will snap a pic of the answer to the letter, which from what I remember is very unsatisfying - or at least, I would have been unsatisfied with it if I was that dude from "Sam Jose"

 

[TheSword]

Resistance to change is natural but not necessarily a good trait to have. Keeping an open mind is probably more important. Not liking something is fine, but when you don’t like it just because it’s different… well.. that’s something I think we should try and fight in ourselves when it rears.

It’s the same way children are less polite than when you were a kid, politicians are less trustworthy and folks don’t know the meaning of a hard days work to the same extent. People have been saying the same thing for 100 years.

I think it’s really easy to ignore 3pp materials by the way. You just don’t buy it. Nothing in a D&D book or AP is going to reference something from 3pp so it only needs bother you if you let it. It’s harder with D&D books but not impossible. My gods if I tried to keep up with every Pathfinder 1e rule that came out I would have gone stir crazy!

 

[el-remmen]

The difference that I remember was that a lot of the people playing AD&D were coming into it from being Wargamers

I am not convinced that this was really still the case in 1986. If it were 1976, then yes. But by 1986 neither I, nor no one I knew playing D&D came from wargaming.

 

[Krachek]

I remember a game in 4ed, I start moving a monster, then start a chain of interrupt that last for 15 minutes. I think that every players made an interrupt, including area attack, healing, moving, free actions. Finally I got back to the monster move, but I got that kind of feeling of overwhelming.

 

[R_J_K75]

I've purchased every single 5e book that's come out so far, but I haven't read them all.

It's hard to keep up with all the races, subclasses, spells, magic items and so on that players want to make use of now.

Im the same. Ive bought most of the 5E books but havent read them all. Ive read and used bits a pieces of quite a few of the ones I do own. I buy books knowing this is the case, some of these will never see use and I've rarely if ever ran a pre-published 5E adventure. I dont feel overwhelmed I just dont care to keep up anymore, and Im waiting to see what the future books from WotC look like, or if I will buy 5.5E.

 

[pming]

I am not convinced that this was really still the case in 1986. If it were 1976, then yes. But by 1986 neither I, nor no one I knew playing D&D came from wargaming.

Well, no, not in '86...but the people who had been DM'ing/Playing for a few years...probably. I mean, look at even just this little demographic of EnWorld. There are a LOT of people here with more than 10 years of experience. You want to find where all the grognards are hanging out, head over to Dragonsfoot.org and the Greyhawk CanonFire web sites (and even Vaults of Pandius for the B/X/BECMI Mystara folks).

Point being... you learn how to play and adapt a play style and mindset from the first few weeks of playing. It then mostly sticks with you for the rest of your life to some degree or another. Take me for example: Been doing the DM thing for 40 years now...I still have the "Neutral DM, always be fair, PC success is not my concern" mindset with a preference for dungeon delving and ruins exploration. I have branched out to enjoy other games and styles of play...but my bedrock, the think I keep coming back to...is what I "learned" back in the very early 80's.

^_^

Paul L. Ming